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Ask the pilot
What does it take to make a plane fly? Can it take off from a conveyor belt? The pilot weighs in on an old brainteaser.
By Patrick Smith [2007-01-05]

  • This is stupid.

    The treadmill has no effect on the plane; once the plane starts moving the treadmill, "designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels, moving in the opposite direction," won't push the plane back. Conduct a thought experiment the next time you fly in a plane, and you'll see that your experience as a passenger would be precisely the same.

    -- alden
    [Read alden's other letters]
    Thursday, January 4, 2007 08:59 PM
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